1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to targeted advertising, such as an advertising system and method for dynamically displaying advertisements in the context of video games (i.e., in-game advertising). More specifically, the present invention provides for the determination and tracking of advertising impressions in response to users interacting with video games having in-game advertising functionality.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the many ways the advertising industry governs the success of advertising campaigns is through impressions. Impressions refer to the exposure a user has had to an ad or ad campaign. Impressions are typically indexed in to the number of times a potential consumer views a particular advertisement. For example, a print advertisement located in a kiosk in a shopping center might be viewed by 1,000 shoppers over the course of an afternoon. It could be said that the particular advertisement enjoyed 1,000 impressions as each shopper walked past the kiosk and viewed the goods or services advertised therein.
High-traffic areas offer the opportunity for additional impressions. For example, an advertising kiosk located near the entrance of a popular store in a shopping center might enjoy 10,000 impressions due to high shopper traffic whereas an advertising kiosk located near an unsuccessful store (e.g., a store going out of business) may enjoy significantly less advertising impressions. As advertisers seek to have their goods and services viewed by as many persons as possible, there is obviously a demand for advertisement placement in high traffic areas.
The same theory applies to other advertising media. For example, newspapers and magazines with high circulation enjoy increased advertising revenue because those newspapers and magazines offer the possibility for additional impressions whereas an unpopular or unsuccessful newspaper or magazine as do those publications circulated in small towns or with niche (i.e., limited) readership. An advertisement on a billboard in Times Square in New York City will similarly offer more impressions (and demand higher revenue) than a billboard located adjacent a service road in rural Nebraska.
High traffic areas or high impression opportunities thus become a valuable asset in the advertising community. Assigning value to those assets offers a challenge as it is difficult to accurately measure how many impressions a particular advertisement or advertising opportunity might offer.
For example, television relies on the Nielsen TV ratings system whereby an estimate of the number of people watching any particular television program at any particular time is provided. Based on statistical information provided by these ratings, a determination of which programs are the most watched or the most popular can be made. These programs often demand higher advertising fees as the increased popularity offers the opportunity for additional impressions. For example, the Super Bowl is one of the most watched television events; Super Bowl XVI between the San Francisco 49ers and the Cincinnati Bengals in 1982 saw almost 50% of the televisions in the United States ‘tuned-in’ to the game. As such, advertising ‘spots’ for the Super Bowl commonly demand exorbitant costs; a 30-second spot for Super Bowl XXXIV between the St. Louis Rams and the Tennessee Titans in 2000 demanded close to $2 M. A similar supply-and-demand theory applies to regularly scheduled programs (e.g., sitcoms). Popular television shows will demand more advertising dollars due to the increased opportunity for advertising impressions whereas less popular shows will demand considerably less.
Other methodologies exist for measuring advertising impressions. For example, and as previously noted, television and magazines traditionally look to circulation to determine advertising rates whereas physical real-estate (e.g., bill boards) will look at a number of factors including location, size of the bill board and general traffic in the area. Radio and the audio media have similar ratings services, for example, those offered by Arbitron Inc., in conjunction with comScore Media Metrix.
Certain advertising models have significant shortcomings. For example, pop-up Internet advertisements that appear in a Web browser are generally viewed as annoying and while usually gaining the attention of the individual ‘surfing’ the web, also garner their disdain for the interruption of their browsing session often leading to immediately closure of the pop-up window or, as is often the case today, the use of a pop-up blocker whereby pop-up advertisements are prevented from popping-up altogether.
Other technological innovations continue to offer additional advertising challenges. For example, digital video recorders (DVR) like those offered by TiVo® provide the ability to ‘skip’ over advertisements by fast forwarding through the advertisement. Due to the digital nature of the television program stored on a TiVo® DVR, ‘skipping’ over advertisements is simple and does not involve the jerkiness, fast-forward/back-up that accompanied VHS tape recorders and video tapes.
The advertising industry is, therefore, increasingly faced with the inability to target its advertisements to individuals due to the decrease in readership in print media, unrefined advertising methodologies on the Internet and the inability to keep audiences ‘captive’ whereby there is a certain degree of assurance that a consumer views a particular advertisement (e.g., users can now ‘skip’ over ads while remaining in front of their television during a television program).
The video game industry is quickly becoming one of the last bastions of captive audience advertising. That is, the player of a video game often offers their undivided attention to the video game environment so that they may remain aware of actions taking place in the game (e.g., being attacked by an enemy, discovering a cache of weapons or treasure trove, identifying a ‘lane’ through which to navigate a running back in a football game). Video games, therefore, offer the opportunity for placing ads before a captive and extremely attentive audience.
There have been—and continue to be—numerous cases wherein actual advertisements of advertisers are deployed and displayed within a video game environment. A classic example is in a driving game, wherein advertisements are pasted onto billboards around a driving course as illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,946,664 and 6,539,544, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. With such in-game advertising, the software publishing company that creates the video game identifies an advertiser, creates texture data based on ad copy provided by the advertiser and places this texture data representative of an advertisement in the video game environment (i.e., posting the advertisement on the billboard).
Online and networked gaming is increasing in popularity throughout the world. With this increase in popularity, there is an expectation that gaming networks assemble standards and evolve into an advertising channel such as television and radio. As a part of this increase and evolution, there is a need for a framework and system for advertisers and media providers to manage and track advertising in video games and other digital environments.